Category Archives: Development

A streetcar waits near the intersection of Davis Street and Zang Boulevard in this vision of the Oak Cliff Gateway development. (Good Fulton & Farrell Architects)

So what’s your take on the plan to redo a main entryway to the Bishop Arts District?

Like what developer Alamo Manhattan has in mind for property around Zang Boulevard and Davis Street? How about those masses of five-story buildings: four levels of apartments atop ground floors of retail and restaurants, all there near the future streetcar stop at Zang and Davis.

The company wants city taxpayers to chip in $11 million in future tax-increment financing district reimbursements to help pay for a proposed $55 million project.

The request awaits city staff analysis, review by the Oak Cliff Gateway TIF District board and a City Council decision. Revisions may well be forthcoming.

Some like the project’s potential impact on its area and Oak Cliff — the people, shops and restaurants it will add to the scene and the taxes it will generate. They argue sustainable neighborhoods need such density and opportunity, and that the streetcar project and rezonings along Davis and Zang.

Others say the development is too intrusive, disrespectful of the Bishop Arts look and culture, just another variation on the Uptown/West Village look.

One day after Judge Craig Smith tossed Highland Park’s attempt to stop construction of an $80-million mid-rise along the Katy Trail, Highland Park officials say they’re considering their options and have not ruled out an appeal.

“While we are disappointed at this initial ruling, we continue to believe our case has merit,” says town administrator Bill Lindley in an email to The Dallas Morning News. “We’re simply asking that the City of Dallas respect and abide by its own Comprehensive Plan to preserve the integrity of the neighborhood and not overdevelop around this popular and beloved community park and trail.”

On Wednesday Smith denied Highland Park’s request for a temporary injunction intended to stop construction of the 258-unit mid-rise. And according to documents filed today, Smith has also granted Dallas’ plea to the jurisdiction, which means he believed theirs wasn’t a claim he could even consider. In technical terms, it’s the proverbial double whammy, as today’s ruling dismisses the lawsuit altogether.

Lindley wasn’t aware of today’s second, more significant ruling until informed by The News this evening during a follow-up interview. He says he will visit with the city’s attorneys and the city council to decide if they will continue to fight the project.

“The council has authorized me to take any actions necessary to protect the town’s interest,” Lindley says.

The Dallas City Attorney’s Office is letting the judge’s rulings speak for themselves.

Looks like Highland Park ain't stopping this mid-rise along the Katy Trail.

A Dallas County judge has tossed Highland Park’s attempt to stop construction of a luxury mid-rise along the Katy Trail.

Last month the town of Highland Park filed a temporary injunction in the hopes of killing an $80-million project set to include 258 one- and two-bedroom apartments. According to its filing, when the Dallas City Council OK’d its construction in August, it “arbitrarily chang[ed] zoning restrictions.” The city of Dallas vehemently disagreed.

So does Judge Craig Smith, who today signed an order denying Highland Park’s request for a temporary injunction. The hearing took place on Monday.

Highland Park, says Smith, “is not entitled to the relief” it was looking for.

Messages have been left for Highland Park Mayor Joel Williams, who said last month that “thousands of people enjoy the Katy Trail and Abbott Park every year [and] a seven-story multi-family high-rise building does not fit this neighborhood and violates Dallas’ own master plan.”

Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston, who represents the neighborhood, says he is “pleased the project will move forward. I think it will substantially enhance both the trail and the neighborhood.”

On Wednesday afternoon Preservation Dallas’ executive director, David Preziosi, was begging the Dallas City Council to call a time-out on razing historic downtown buildings. He should have been looking Uptown as well: About an hour after he wrapped his presentation, Teresa Gubbins reported that Alamo Manhattan LLC is about to demolish the Mason Bar on Guillot Street, so named because of the former church’s century-long affiliation with the Freemasons. It will be scraped and replaced with a residential mid-rise, because this is Dallas.

Alamo Manhattan CEO Matt Segrest on Tuesday confirmed he’s working on an apartment project for the site, but said it’s too early to talk about the size of the development or any details. He said it won’t be a high-rise building and will be “appropriate for the neighborhood.”

Judy Smith Hearst, a State-Thomas resident since 1977 who led the charge to create the historic district in the early 1980s, says the owners of the Masonic lodge at the time didn’t want to be in the historic district. And most of the cottages were not there when the historic district was created: Some on Boll Street are originals, she says, but most of the ones on Guillot were moved in by real estate developer Andrew Kasnetz. Says Hearst, they came from all over the city — including Thomas Avenue, where the former Traci’s Restaurant sat until it was moved behind the Mason Bar to make way for Hotel Zaza.

“I hate to lose the Mason Bar,” says Heart, “I wish we had time to save Traci’s. But I have always known without historic protection you can’t protect historic buildings. I knew this would come. The timing is the problem: You can get people to rally, but it takes time, and the new owners have to be willing to work with the neighbors and have to compromise — like, for instance, factoring the Mason Bar into their design, so you don’t lose the flavor of the neighborhood. It’s interesting when you have the old and new juxtaposed.”

Which is why Preservation Dallas is going to add that slice of State-Thomas to “the list of historic places where we’d like to see some sort of moratorium or cooling-off period for demolitions so we can better evaluate the buildings and determine if this is the right course for the direction of the city.”

But council member Philip Kingston, who represents Uptown, says this isn’t quite the same situation as the downtown Dallas demolition concern, raised a few weeks ago when Headington Companies began razing hundred-plus-year-old buildings on Elm and Main to make way for The Joule’s expansion.

“The land use over there has been so carefully studied, and it’s just a different situation,” says Kingston. “That is a very heavily negotiated planned development district, and within it are 20 sub-districts. They negotiated this to death. It’s not what I would have done, but I’m not sure I’m in a position to say it’s terrible land use. It’s not like downtown, which hasn’t been studied. I am troubled any time you see someone throw away a historically important building because they’re not creative enough to reuse it, but I am not in a position to say the neighbors who negotiated this PD are wrong.”

Click to enlarge for a glimpse at the Deep Ellum that is and the Deep Ellum Scott Rohrman envisions

Two months after Deep Ellum Tax Increment Financing District board first talked about adding the heart of Deep Ellum to the TIF district, a Dallas City Council committee got its first look at the proposal. And in the words of council member and Economic Development Committee member Rick Callahan: “It’s about time for Deep Ellum.”

The committee actually didn’t spend much time talking about the addition of Deep Ellum to the Deep Ellum TIF before passing it along for the full council’s consideration next week in advance of a September 10 public hearing. Of most interest was the proposed addition of the old Dallas High School, known to most as Crozier Tech, to the Deep Ellum TIF District. A historic structure sitting empty on DART’s Pearl/Arts District Station, it has taunted and teased developers for years, Jack Matthews among them in recent weeks. But every promise winds up becoming a broken one.

Karl Zavitkovsky, head of the Office of Economic Development, told the council that adding the historic downtown high school to the TIF district will “provide support for the redevelopment of Crozier Tech.” To which council member Lee Kleinman eventually countered, “I want to be very careful about giving entitlements” to property owners or developers. But as Zavitkovsky pointed out, it’s one of the sole downtown buildings not in a TIF district. The others (City Center, Downtown Connection, even Farmers Market), he noted, are close to being tapped out. And as Callahan reminded, “Once upon a time [Crozier Tech] was part of the same neighborhood before 345,” referring to the elevated highway some folks would like to see torn out.

A look down the would-be Main Street of the future

For nine years the historic core along Elm, Main or Commerce Streets between Good-Latimer Expressway and Hall Street has also been parked outside the Deep Ellum TIF District boundaries. Why the city did that depends on who you talk to at Dallas City Hall. Old-timers say city officials weren’t about to give redevelopment incentives to a small arm of property owners who, at the time, were suing the city over Deep Ellum’s rotten infrastructure. Zavitkovsky says it was just a business decision — nothing personal. But the time has come to add the core to the TIF, Zavitkovsky said during an interview with The Dallas Morning News on Friday. The catalyst: developer Scott Rohrman, who, with his partners, had spent the last several months buying up a sizable hunk of Deep Ellum — 27 buildings and 13 parking lots at last count.

“It was certainly impactful that he could pull together an investment group and assemble these investment properties,” Zavitkovsky said. “As he acquired a number of properties and was in the process of building assemblage, he talked to us about his vision. And one of the things that’s been interesting in Deep Ellum and downtown is that people are beginning to make financial bets and investments without saying, ‘We’ll do this if the city does that.’ He didn’t do that. We talked about the various things possible, the vision he had. I impressed by the fact he’s bought into the neighborhood there. He seems to be very actively involved in community events. It seems to be something that’s very positive.” Continue reading →

This is what Trammell Crow says the Sam's Club will look like in the shadow of Cityplace.

Update at 2:28 p.m. July 11: A Dallas County judge has signed the East Village Association’s temporary restraining order following a hearing that began Friday morning.

For now the East Village Association has scored at least a temporary victory that stops the city of Dallas from issuing a building permit for the Sam’s Club in the shadow of Cityplace during the next two weeks — despite the fact the City Plan Commission OK’d the development plan at yesterday’s meeting. According to court records, an injunction hearing has been set for 9:30 a.m. July 25 in Judge Phyllis Lister Brown’s courtroom. There will be no bond, as nobody will be applying for a building permit in the next two weeks.

“The court has the ability to stop the train in its track, and that’s what we want,” East Village Association’s attorney Anthony Ricciardelli told Judge Emily Tobolowsky during the hearing.

“The city and organizations have to be transparent and give folks the ability to voice their opinions,” said Juliana Bradley, who lives near Cityplace. “People in the neighborhood are fired up. They feel like they had the rug pulled out from underneath them.”

Despite this afternoon’s outcome, Trammell Crow Company remains optimistic about the development.

On Wednesday afternoon the East Village Association filed an application for a temporary restraining order to roadblock the vote. Says the group — which is led by, among others, Jonas Park — Trammell Crow Co. “misled” residents about the proposed development, while city staff “relied on misrepresentations” when preparing the documents for plan commission.

“The zoning ordinance allowing Crow to develop a 100,000+ square foot merchandise store on Planned Development District 889 at the corner of North Central Expressway and North Carroll Avenue (the “Development”) is the product of a fraud upon the people and the City of Dallas,” says the petition, which you can read in full below. “Because of the fundamentally unique character of 100,000+ square foot merchandise stores, Dallas has historically intervened to restrict their development.”

There was a hearing today, at which point Judge Sheryl McFarlin declined to give the East Village Association their TRO. However, she did set another hearing for 10:30 a.m. Friday, and that hearing will take up the part of the petition that opponents hope enjoins the city from “approving any development plan for the Development that does not conform to the Pre-Existing Zoning and from any conduct with regard to the Development inconsistent with the permitted uses under the Pre-Existing Zoning until such time as the zoning for the Development is modified through proper procedure, including proper notice.”

In other words: The East Village Association doesn’t want the city to give Sam’s Club a certificate of occupancy.

A representative for Trammell Crow said the developer was confident the city had properly vetted the proposal.

“This project was under review for more than 12 months …,” Erin Ragsdale said in a written statement Wednesday night. “It has been discussed at two separate City Plan Commission meetings and one City Council meeting, and was approved every time a vote was taken to move forward. It’s time for everyone to look forward, and to work together to make sure that this project is successful for the City, and for the communities it will serve.”

Plan commissioners say they are awaiting further instructions from Dallas City Attorney’s Office. But First Assistant City Attorney Chris Bowers tells The Dallas Morning News, “We are pleased the judge’s ruling will allow the City Plan Commission to consider the item on their agenda tomorrow.”

Click to embed the city's general-funds inventory needs list. And I was told there would be no math.

It’s hard to say exactly where needs what: The briefing, which is below, is short on specifics but long on big numbers — so much so council member Philip Kingston says they’re sky-is-falling big.

“This isn’t management,” he said Saturday morning. “It’s fear.”

And, he cautions, they may not even be accurate. For instance: The cultural facilities briefing insisted the Dallas Historical Society needs a $10-million expansion of the Hall of Petroleum at Fair Park. Margaret Keliher, chair of the Dallas Historical Society and the former Dallas County judge, says the DHS has asked for no such amount. And, besides, there is no such thing as the Hall of Petroleum. DHS is based out of the Hall of State; the Petroleum Building was demolished after the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition.

The briefing also separate general-fund needs (which is to say, the things we pay for) and enterprise-fund needs (or, the things that are supposed to pay for themselves). But, for the sake of this item, here’s how things shake out. Flood protection and storm drainage needs top $1 billion, thanks to, among other things, “undersized drainage systems” that need expanding; drain systems that need upgrading and/or extending; bridges that need rebuilding; and erosion along creeks that needs to be addressed before things start falling in. (Remember: Most of the $642-million 2012 bond program, considered “bare bones,” went toward streets and drainage.) And keeping the city’s 1,270 buildings in shape takes money: $366,707,000, give or take. Park and Rec needs $3 billion alone.

Again, the briefing doesn’t itemize where, what or how much. It’s general when it comes to general-fund and enterprise-fund infrastructure needs. But it is very specific when it comes to solutions.

Among the possible fixes: Raise storm water fees. Look at a “dedication tax for streets.” Just stop building things. Sell or close city-owned facilities. Stop expecting the streets to be 87-percent acceptable. Privatize more things. Ask people with money for more money. Charge more. Expect less.

Tune in Wednesday. It should be enlightening.

“These are all long-term problems somebody on staff knew about for quite a while, so why are we just hearing about them now?” Kingston says. “As soon as [former city manager] Mary [Suhm] leaves, the chickens are coiming home to roost.” Continue reading →

As for the streets themselves, the city plan commission’s transportation committee this morning endorsed a proposed revision of the city’s thoroughfare plan that would allow for some notable changes.

Months, if not years, in the works, the new vision calls for redeveloping the Commerce/FWA corridor with four lanes of motor vehicle traffic, a median, street-side parallel parking, sidewalks and a two-way bicycle track separated from the roadway.

The changes would extend about 3 1/2 miles between Beckley and Westmoreland and come sometime down the road, as funding for most of the work hasn’t been “identified,” we’re told.

But dollars from a previous bond program are available for a starter project between Sylvan and roughly Pittman — from the Belmont Hotel east to the Chicken Scratch restaurant.

The thoroughfare plan amendment is scheduled for a Plan Commission vote Aug. 8 with a City Council decision on Sept. 11. With approval, design of the first segment would begin with estimated completion next April, we’re told. As for construction? The city says details to come.

Elsewhere in the area, a redo of Sylvan Avenue between I-30 and Fort Worth Avenue should be under way by late September, says Henry Nguyen, a city engineering services program manager.

The finished product will include four lanes with a median, parallel parking on one side of the corridor and bike lanes in each direction. In time the reconstruction will extend to Singleton Boulevard.

And a rebuilding of the Commerce-Beckley intersection should begin before year’s end, he said.

Update, 7:18 p.m.: The City Plan Commission said no in a unanimous voice vote.

Commissioners said they didn’t think they knew enough to make an informed decision. And they were bothered by the lack of a clear policy from the City Council on drilling in floodplains and park lands.

The vote is just a recommendation. Next month the cases still go to the council, which will have the chance to study those issues up close.

Update at 6:23 p.m.: Cothrum has concluded.

“These are very distant, remote sites,” he said “We can do this safely.”

Now the commissioners start their questions.

Update at 6:15 p.m.: Cothrum told the commission that a compressor station “is a necessity of physics” and is no surprise to anyone who has followed Trinity East’s plans closely.

On the sanctity of park land, Cothrum says the Luna Road corridor, where all three sites are located, is already dominated by heavy industry.

“If you think of an industrial use, it’s out there,” he said.

Golfers at Luva Vista Golf Course won’t be bothered by noise, he said. And the city Park and Recreation Department chose the sites for drilling within the L.B. Houston Park, Cothrum said.

He showed a dozen photos of North Texas golf courses with gas wells. “It happens commonly,” he said.

Update at 5:56 p.m.: Cothrum also addressed floodplain concerns, saying the company will put the wellheads on platforms three feet above the 100-year flood level.

He said the company would buy water from Dallas Water Utilities for hydraulic fracturing — “terminating it forever,” he said, meaning it can never be used again.

“But it is a small amount of water compared to what Dallas Water Utilities could sell,” Cothrum said. “It’s miniscule.” And it creates jobs and energy, he added.

The noise of the compressor station 600 feet away at the soccer fields, he said, would be like a conversation between two people.

And he said fears about explosions, while “based on good faith concerns,” haven’t been borne out by experience.

Update at 5:47 p.m.: Dallas Cothrum of Masterplan, a Dallas planning firm, is now carrying the ball for Trinity East.

Cothrum said he wants to treat this as a zoning case, not a debate over national energy or environmental policy.

He showed photographs of wells next to Grapevine Mills mall, the University of Texas at Arlington, and even Beverly Hills, Calif. He compared Trinity East’s proposed compressor station to an electrical substation.

“We understand this is unpopular,” Cothrum said. But “most of the studies have been favorable.”

Update at 5:37 p.m.: The opponents have used up their 45 minutes and 10 extra minutes the commission awarded. That also means the company will get 10 more minutes.

“You don’t have to be pro or con drilling. … This way doesn’t pass the smell test,” said Jim Schermbeck, director of Downwinders at Risk.

“Neither is this body informed enough to make this decision,” he said.

He noted one new concern the paperwork doesn’t address — low-frequency sound emissions from compressor stations — as well as air pollution, water use and other dangers.

“You know less about this than the people here in this audience,” Schermbeck said.

Zac Trahan of the Texas Campaign for the Environment attacked Trinity East for saying the conditions in the company’s plans were the strictest ever imposed.

And Dallas resident Gary Stuard, chair of Downwinders at Risk and of Dallas Move On’s environmental workgroup, singled out the City Council for not passing a new ordinance before Trinity East sent in its most recent applications.

“It’s been heartbreaking to watch what’s supposed to be an exercise in democracy become an absolute farce,” Stuard said.

Update at 5:00 p.m.: Some of the opponents are pushing for a ban on drilling in Dallas, either forever or at least until the City Council imposes tougher rules. The city attorney, however, has told the council that the current ordinance must govern any applications already submitted.

Topics include health risks, explosions, water use and even smog. Gas facilities, especially compressing stations, which one proposed site would include, are major contributors to air pollution, studies have shown.

“Dallas already has bad air,” Ed Meyer of Dallas told commissioners. “Let’s not make it worse.”

Earlier: Nearly three hours into its meeting, the commission has begun taking up Trinity East Energy LLC’s plans to drill on three sites in Dallas.

Chair Joe Alcantar has given the supporters and opponents 45 minutes each. Trinity East’s representatives say they’ll have some brief comments but will save most of their time for rebuttals.

Opponent Marc McCord led off by blasting the city for even considering drilling in a floodplain, prohibited by current city ordinance.

“You need to enforce the law as it’s written,” McCord thundered. “What is there to vote on?”

This afternoon’s City Plan Commission hearings on three natural-gas drilling requests will include a little history and a lot of disagreement.

The history concerns city policy on drilling on park land. The disagreement covers that point and just about everything else.

First, the history. Two of Trinity East Energy LLC’s proposed projects would be on designated city park land. One is tucked between Northwest Highway and a gun range that rents park land from the city. Another is north of the range at the western edge of the city’s Luna Vista Golf Course.

Opponents say approving those two sites would violate a longstanding city policy of allowing no surface drilling on park land. Nothing was ever anticipated, they say, except letting companies locate rigs away from park land and then reach gas below the parks with deep, horizontal drilling.

The record to back up on that assertion starts off pretty clear but then gets murky enough to remain pretty interesting — both for those historians of city policy and those trying to steer it. Continue reading →